Guillaume Apollinaire

It was a blessèd time we were at the beach Go out early in the morning no shoes no hats no ties And quick as a toad’s tongue can reach Love wounded the hearts of the mad and the wise Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was a military man Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was an artiman In the war It was a blessèd time At mail call We are squeezed in tighter than on a bus And the stars passing by were mimicked by the shells In the night when the cannons came rolling up Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was a military man Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was an artiman In the war It was a blessèd time Days and nights blending The stew-pot shells gave our trench dugout Aluminum shrapnel that you set about Smoothing all day into an unlikely ring Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was a military man Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was an artiman In the war It was a blessèd time The war goes on The Gunners have filed for part of a year Safe in the woods the Driver can hear An unknown star repeating a song Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was a military man Did you know Guy when he galloped along When he was an artiman In the war Translated from the French

To G. de Chirico I have built a house in the middle of the Ocean Its windows are the rivers flowing from my eyes Octopi are crawling all over where the walls are Hear their triple hearts beat and their beaks peck against 
the windowpanes House of dampness House of burning Season’s fastness Season singing The airplanes are laying eggs Watch out for the dropping of the anchor Watch out for the shooting black ichor It would be good if you were to come from the sky The sky’s honeysuckle is climbing The earthly octopi are throbbing And so very many of us have become our own gravediggers Pale octopi of the chalky waves O octopi with pale beaks Around the house is this ocean that you know well And is never still Translated from the French

Under Mirabeau Bridge the river slips away And lovers Must I be reminded Joy came always after pain The night is a clock chiming The days go by not I We're face to face and hand in hand While under the bridges Of embrace expire Eternal tired tidal eyes The night is a clock chiming The days go by not I Love elapses like the river Love goes by Poor life is indolent And expectation always violent The night is a clock chiming The days go by not I The days and equally the weeks elapse The past remains the past Love remains lost Under Mirabeau Bridge the river slips away The night is a clock chiming The days go by not I

Knock knock He has closed his door The garden’s lilies have started to rot So who is the corpse being carried from the house You just knocked on his door And trot trot Trot goes little lady mouse Translated from the French

Anemone and columbine Where gloom has lain Opened in gardens Between love and disdain Made somber by the sun Our shadows meet Until the sun Is squandered by night Gods of living water Let down their hair And now you must follow A craving for shadows